The beta for Atlas has been launched on November 15. Atlas is a visual development tool for creating web applications using the Cappuccino framework. "Atlas is a development tool for building Cappuccino applications. In addition to managing your project files and editing code, it includes a powerful visual layout tool for designing your interfaces without ever having to touch code. Designers are empowered to interact with their designs instantly, which means programmers get to finished applications faster."

The framework they are using looks very nice. Their product is overpriced thoug - $20 BETA, with no guarantee of final cost much past "you get your $20 off".. um.. nope. Sounds way too much like the Pixel32 and SkyOS model of business.

$20 is a trivial amount of money. If I had a project where I needed something like Atlas I'd happily pay twice that. If it could save me a few of hours on one project I'd have made my money back several times over.

I (and others) obviously disagree. Overpriced is a subjective term. Without knowing how many they've sold and how much revenue they'd hoped to make one cannot really discuss the validity of the pricing strategy.

Just because it's more than you (and others) are willing to pay doesn't mean it's overpriced.

You haven't looked at the beta sign up page then? It says it is $20 to enter the beta program, but the tools will expire every 3 months - which means you are at the mercy of the company creating the tools. It also states that the final release will have a further cost and the offer they give is "$20 off the final price" which is totally unacceptable. We, the potential beta testers, help them develop their platform and get precisely zero concessions on the final product? Um...?

Cappuccino, on the other hand, is free and looks really nice. I'm certainly thinking of playing with it some more.